Can't believe we're now stepping into a brand new year and, I hereby would like to wish Happy New Year to all the readers who visit my blog. I hope it's not too late for me to write and share about my life in 2019 in a nutshell like what I always did ever since 2011 and this serves as my first official blogpost for the brand new year of 2020. I have to admit that 2019 turns out to be the most travelling year in my life where I got to travel abroad like every single month.
Now, let's have a quick recap of my travel adventures for the year 2019:
- January - Brunei & Bintulu. Initially I was supposed to have four trips flying to Brunei, Bintulu, Sibu and Bangkok but unfortunately due to work commitments, I only managed to go for the first two and forgone the rest.
- February - Morocco. Never in my life I would ever thought of going to North Africa and what worst was I chosen to go during the Chinese New Year period. It's not an easy task for me to get my parents' permission especially to be away from the family during the festive season but I did promise them that I will not travel anywhere for next year Chinese New Year. This trip I went with one of my best buddies and we visited cities like Marrakesh, Fes, Rabat, Chefchaouen and Casablanca. We even signed up for 3D2N Merzouga Sahara Desert Tour.
- March - Kun Ming, Shangri-la & Lijiang of China. The boyfriend surprised me with a trip to China for my birthday. But the thing that totally out of my expectation is that with the help of the owner of the homestay we stayed in Lijiang, the boyfriend specially requested her to surprise me with my favourite flower - a beautiful and lovely bouquet of lilies. This is my first time receiving flowers in overseas. Absolutely overwhelming and unexpectedly!
- April - Third Solo Trip to Europe. Travelling solo was once never my cup of tea but since ever I travelled to Europe alone in 2017, I started to enjoy it and little did I know, I got addicted to it. Besides Istanbul, this round I managed to cover new countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro.
- May - Lanzhou, Dunhuang, Jiayuguan & Zhangye of China. What can I say? Three China trips within half a year. And this trip to China is totally never in my plan nor my wishlist but when the boyfriend came across a news of AirAsia is commencing a new route to Lanzhou, without thinking any longer, immediately he booked and tagged me along for this trip.
- June - Maldives & Tokyo. The trip to Maldives is for leisure whereas the trip to Tokyo is for work. It's my first time to Maldives (thanks to the boyfriend again) but for Tokyo, I'm back for the 6th time.
- July - Bangkok & Kanchanaburi of Thailand. Just when I thought I will never happen to go Bangkok last year cause I burned my ticket to Bangkok early of the year, sometimes things in life come unexpectedly. The boyfriend bought a round-trip ticket to Bangkok when I least expected it. At the same time, I also received a job assignment where I was hired to become private tour guide to bring my guests around Bangkok. So this trip it's like killing two birds with a stone.
- August - Taipei & Alishan of Taiwan. Back to Taiwan for the 5th time to celebrate the 2nd anniversary the boyfriend and I've been together. It's my first time to visit Alishan but unfortunately, it's raining cats and dogs for whole day.
- September & October - Fukuoka of Japan. Revisit this prefecture for the second time as AirAsia launched this new route from Kuala Lumpur. Apart from the same cities and town I've been in 2018, this time I managed to cover Takachiho, Saga and Kita-Kyushu.
- October & November - West Coast of USA. Again, this trip is totally not in my plan because of the tedious visa application and significantly pricey airticket. But luck is on our side when we got our airfares for around RM2,200 flying from Kota Kinabalu to Los Angeles with China Southern Airlines. For this trip, we covered the West Coast like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco and we even spent two days visiting the Disneyland.
- December - Singapore. The last trip for the year 2019 as the boyfriend booked the tickets again with Scoot Airlines. We went there for Christmas.
Unexpectedly and absolutely not part of my plan, 2019 is the year where I ticked off two new continents - African and North America. Talking about the number of countries, I discovered at least 9 new countries last year - Morocco, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, Maldives and United States of America.
Apart from travelling abroad, I do travel within the country as well. Majority focusing on the Borneo Island, what I meant is the East Malaysia. The boyfriend and I went few cities like Bintulu, Sandakan and Kuching (twice) and I can claimed that the year 2019 is also where both the boyfriend and I have seen the most primates in our life where our visit includes to:
One of the most unforgettable moments in my life which doesn't connected to travel is where I went and watched a concert performed by my favourite boy band - Westlife. It's been ages since the last concert I went - it was like almost 20 years ago. This is because I'm not the type who like to go a place with huge crowd, to be honest. Initially I didn't put any high expectation of getting the Westlife The Twenty Tour concert ticket as I was busy backpacking alone in Europe April last year but when the boyfriend told me that he managed to buy the ticket online, you can't imagine how overwhelming I was that time when receiving the good news from him. Can't believe I've been growing up by listening to Westlife's song for exactly 20 years.
Oh another thing! Before we left for our trip to Singapore for Christmas, I got my early Christmas gift from the boyfriend - Huawei Mate 20. Now I have three Huawei as part of my collection but this is my first ever Mate series as the previous two are P series. Do you know I never own any iPhone or Samsung phones to date? I don't know why but I never interested of getting any of them. I rather use other brands like HTC, Sony and Huawei.
Wondering what's my travel plan for the year of 2020? Of course I do have few in my bucket list but unfortunately, I unable to share out loud and public now due to the so-called jinx which indeed happened to me before. So do keep looking forward to read my blog, or for more instant update, do follow me on Instagram to check out about my latest travel adventures.
- Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilition Centre in Sandakan
- Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary in Sandakan
- Bako National Park in Kuching
- Semenggoh Nature Reserve in Kuching
- Lokkawi Zoo in Kota Kinabalu
- as well as in Singapore Zoo too.
One of the most unforgettable moments in my life which doesn't connected to travel is where I went and watched a concert performed by my favourite boy band - Westlife. It's been ages since the last concert I went - it was like almost 20 years ago. This is because I'm not the type who like to go a place with huge crowd, to be honest. Initially I didn't put any high expectation of getting the Westlife The Twenty Tour concert ticket as I was busy backpacking alone in Europe April last year but when the boyfriend told me that he managed to buy the ticket online, you can't imagine how overwhelming I was that time when receiving the good news from him. Can't believe I've been growing up by listening to Westlife's song for exactly 20 years.
Oh another thing! Before we left for our trip to Singapore for Christmas, I got my early Christmas gift from the boyfriend - Huawei Mate 20. Now I have three Huawei as part of my collection but this is my first ever Mate series as the previous two are P series. Do you know I never own any iPhone or Samsung phones to date? I don't know why but I never interested of getting any of them. I rather use other brands like HTC, Sony and Huawei.
Wondering what's my travel plan for the year of 2020? Of course I do have few in my bucket list but unfortunately, I unable to share out loud and public now due to the so-called jinx which indeed happened to me before. So do keep looking forward to read my blog, or for more instant update, do follow me on Instagram to check out about my latest travel adventures.
As for the token of appreciation, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Rose from Rose World for the countless of comments she left in my blog. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for supporting this humble travel blog of mine. Do remember to leave your name, mailing address and contact number to my email address: dianateodt@gmail.com to redeem the small little gift I prepared for you.
Last but not least,
"May this year bring new happiness, new goals, new achievements and a lot of new inspirations on your life. Wishing each and every of you a year fully loaded with happiness. Wishing every day of the new year to be filled with success, happiness and prosperity for you, happy new year."
"Instead of looking at what's depressing, look at what's blessing" - Kristen Butler
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A well planned and busy year for you. But exciting one. Hope you have better 2020 as well.
ReplyDeleteFor me, we gone to KK in July and then Shanghai last month. Another local holiday this mid year, I can't wait for it. If nothing goes wrong, we may be going overseas, mostly China (again) this year end. :)
Happy New Year and many more happy travels! :)
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year D. Keep exploring the world in 2020!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sending me a postcard when you were travelling during 2019.
ReplyDeleteLook forward your 2020 trips in blog :D